Actually, I'm wondering where the last 4 days went! Friday, pick up the van, get to the warehouse, load up, drive to drop off all the food and goodies for the Launch Crew’s après launch thank you party and then on to north London to our digs for Friday night.
Set up at the Ace Cafe kicked off a 7.30am
on the Saturday morning and by 10.30 we were already selling books to some guys, who’d popped in on the off chance on their way up to the Tailend BMF Rally.
We had a few IT glitches (of course), which started off with the planned digi projector for the power point presentation not being where it was supposed to be.
Thankfully, Grant and Susan didn’t mind me waking them up with an early morning phone call.
And yes, they’d bring theirs. That wasn’t the end of that little saga though. My lap top wouldn’t recognize the projector! It took the book editor Paul Blezard, Fil Schiannini the book’s graphic designer and Grant himself to finally get all the connections made so the 240 shot, power point presentation could roll through. Thanks guys!
But that was the only big time glitch. Steve McGill set up his music kit and kicked the launch off with some of his amazing singing and playing. If you didn’t make it to the launch, he is well worth Googling. While Steve was playing a queue was forming at the book and T-shirt counter and around us floated the delicious scents of the Ace Cafe’s fantastic breakfasts.
And then we were on a roll. Outside in the sunshine, the car park was slowly filling up with dune buggies and bikes, and Avon Tyres, Robert White Photographic, Metal Mule, James Cargo, Two Wheel Trekkers and Globebusters were getting their first interested visitors. By 12 the car park was filling fast with people who had ridden from as far away as the north of England and west Wales. Plus of course, everyone from UK Gsers – thanks for coming guys. It was great to get the chance to link up with you. The attendance estimates were given to me at the end of the day as somewhere between 400 and 450 people.
Over 500 pounds was raised in aid of Motorcycle Outreach.
Our thanks to everyone who donated a prize and to those of you who bought raffle tickets.
I have to admit to being absolutely shattered by the end of day. No surprise I suppose, as it was my first day out of quarantine. But it was a very happy shattered. The day wouldn’t have been such a success without all the help we have had from friends. Where would we all be with out good friends eh.
Birgit and I got back home late on Sunday afternoon, via the warehouse to drop off some books and pick up others, and then lugged all the stuff up the stairs into our home before falling in a messy heap on the sofa. But a happy messy heap!
What a weekend! We are delighted with how well the day went, and we really enjoyed it. We hope you did too.
If you were one of the HUers to make it, many thanks for riding over and I hope you enjoy reading your copy of ‘Tortillas to Totems’. If you didn’t make it, well, you can get a copy from
www.sam-manicom.com Let me know you are on the HUer forum by using the comments box on the order form and I’ll get a signed copy out to you.
All the best,
Sam
PS If you check oit the website for the books, over the next couple of days we should have pics from the launch going on. If you made it, are you there, if you didn't make it, check out the look of the day.
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Good on you for buying tickets. It was one of the reasons we worked so hard to get this huge list of prizes. Just had to be worth buying some tickets. Darned sight better than the lottery eh. I'm chuffed you won the DVDs -Excellent stuff.
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